The present invention relates generally to a rear load refrigerated display case which provides additional cooling of refrigerated items at the front of the case and prevents freezing of refrigerated items at the rear of the case.
Refrigerated display cases are employed to allow shoppers to access groceries and other refrigerated items from the front of the case without the obstruction of a door. The refrigerated items are stocked from the rear of the case to allow restocking of the case without interruption of customer traffic. The temperature range in the case is generally between 32° F. and 43° F.
A walk-in cooler adjacent to the rear of the case maintains freshness of the refrigerated items prior to being stocked in the case. A divider, such as a curtain, typically separates the rear of the refrigerated case from the cooler.
In the prior art refrigerated display case, air drawn from the cooler is further cooled by a coil and discharged along the front of the case to create an air curtain that cools the front refrigerated items and is then circulated back to the cooler. Some of the air cooled by the coil drops down the rear of the case and/or is deflected towards the front of the case to cool the refrigerated items at the top of the case.
A drawback of the refrigerated display case of the prior art is that the refrigerated items in the rear of the case are colder than the refrigerated items in the front of the case. This is because the rear of the case shares a wall with the cooler and the front of the case is open to the warmer store environment. Therefore, there is a large temperature range in the case. Additionally, the refrigerated items in the middle front of the case are generally warmer because of a loss in the air curtain integrity.